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We won’t knock anyone who treats their mom to a brunch date, a box of chocolates, or some jewelry this Mother’s Day. But being a collection of tech-obsessed androids, we’d be remiss not to argue that the right gadget can make a more lasting and practical impact on Mom’s everyday life.

We’re still working on our mind-reading device here at Ars HQ, so for now, you know your mom better than we do. If she likes her current routines, don’t try to force some new gadget into her life just because you think it’s cool. But if she has room for a new piece of tech—or just wants an update to an old one—we have a few Mother's Day gift ideas for you, the nerdy child, so you can grab a gadget that may not immediately get stuffed in her bedroom closet. Here’s to doing a little bit more to pay Mom back for all the annoyance you’ve caused her over the years.

Note: Ars Technica may earn compensation for sales from links on this post through affiliate programs.

Apple iPad or Amazon Fire HD 8

Here’s an obvious one. You know what a tablet does. But if your mom doesn’t have a slate for browsing the Web, checking email, watching her shows on Netflix, playing Words with Friends, or whatever else, this is a good time to change that.

Further Reading

Apple’s iPad rules the roost here: it’s built well, and its battery will get all but the heaviest users through a full day before needing to charge. The 9.7-inch screen is sharp and vibrant enough—we don’t think Mom will really care about not having the 120Hz refresh rates of an iPad Pro—and iOS’ app library continues to be more welcoming to larger screen sizes than Android. The latest model also supports Apple’s Pencil stylus if Mom likes to doodle. At $329, it’s a decent value, though if your mom can live without the Pencil support and with a slower but still usable processor, paying less for last year’s iPad before the stock clears out might work just as well.

If you can’t shell out that much, Amazon’s Fire HD 8 might make more sense. It ditches the iPad’s sturdier aluminum for cheaper-feeling plastic, and it’s not nearly as powerful. But this tablet still does all the form factor's rudimentary things without much frustration. Most appealingly, it’s only $80. That’s not as dirt-cheap as Amazon’s entry-level Fire 7 tablet, but the Fire HD 8’s sharper 1200x800 resolution display will prove worth the extra $30 over time.

Either way, Mom will get a device that’s simpler than a laptop for computing, and it's much easier to carry around to boot. If you really want to be a help, you can even set up the tablet and download a few apps you know she'll use before handing it over.

Apple iPad (32GB)

Price: $329 at Apple

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Amazon Fire HD 8 (16GB)

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Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Everyone knows what a Kindle does by now, so our recommendation is more of a testament to how set in stone the e-reader market has become than anything else. If your mom is a reader and hasn’t yet hopped aboard the ebook bandwagon, the Kindle Paperwhite should be more than pleasant enough for her without searing a hole in your wallet.

It’s getting a bit old in gadget years, but the Paperwhite’s sharp 6-inch display, lightweight design, fast-enough performance, and serviceable backlight still hold up fine. It may not have the nifty page-turning buttons or waterproofing of the Kindle Oasis, but it’s $130 cheaper.

In either case, Amazon continues to carry what’s generally seen as the widest-reaching and most competitively priced ebook library. The company still makes it a pain to read certain ebook formats—namely EPUB—but for the most part a Kindle won’t make it hard for Mom to find something to read. It should save space on her bookshelf along the way, as well.

Amazon Kindle Paperwhite

Price: $99.99 at Amazon (normally $119.99)

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Amazon Echo Dot or Google Home Mini

We’d understand if you don’t want to subject your mom to a device that’s designed to listen for her voice, in her home, all day long. Smart speakers like the Amazon Echo Dot and Google Home Mini are what they are at this point: they can mishear their wake words and briefly record someone’s home when they’re not expecting it, and both of them use the data people request to fine-tune marketing and advertising profiles. At the same time, they need to be listening to some extent to work properly, and they aren’t the only Internet-connected devices sending usage data back for advertising purposes. These introductory devices both have mute functions when you don’t want them to hear anything, and both Amazon and Google say all the data they’re sending back to their servers is encrypted.

Further Reading

It’s hard to say if there’s a definitive right answer here—there are legitimate reasons to have pause about the effect of these things, but there are also legitimate use cases in which they make daily tasks easier. And even if you and your mom are comfortable enough with the concept and just want to know which one to get, it’s not quite as simple as saying one is definitely better than the other.

Neither is a particularly attractive piece of decor, both are pretty bad as standalone speakers, and there will be times when both assistants are just flat-out aggravating in their misunderstandings. But they each do many of the same genuinely useful things—setting timers, giving traffic and weather reports, making Web searches, playing music on command, serving as an intercom—in a way that’s more natural than just using a phone. They each cost the same $50 as well.

Which one to get likely comes down to which assistant Mom is more likely to stick with. If she has an Android phone and heavily uses Google services, the Google Home Mini will make more sense. Google’s digital helper is a bit more polished in practice than Amazon’s Alexa—what things it can do, it usually does well, and it tends to handle general knowledge questions better. But Alexa has the wider breadth of support across smart home manufacturers, if that matters, and this device makes it easier to connect to existing speaker systems through its 3.5mm jack. The Home Mini can control a TV hooked up with a Chromecast; the Echo Dot plays nicer with Amazon apps like Audible. Both support most of the same major third-party music apps.

You get the idea. Personally, I prefer the Google Home Mini, but that’s mainly because I own a Chromecast, subscribe to Google’s Play Music service, and don’t really care about building a smart home. The fact that it’s less reliant on installing third-party “skills” to be useful may make it simpler for some moms to use. But I can’t tell you what your mom prefers, and both are so close in functionality that it’s hard to pick the “wrong” one either way.

I love the quality of the ThermoWorks stuff. I have their Big and Loud timer and a Smoke thermometer with the remote display. They are definitely a site to look at if you need cooking or food storage accessories.

My kids are still young, so I get Mother's Day gifts for my wife. If your Mother's Day target is like my wife though (Forgetful, and incapable of plugging anything in, ever), battery packs are a godsend. I went for the larger 20,000 version, and it sees plenty of use when we travel.

Fair warning though, it will become a regular sight so see her plugged in to the battery pack instead of the wall, even when sitting on the couch ~3ft away from a wall charger... And she will NEVER PLUG THE DAMN BATTERY PACK IN. EVER! Oh, it's dead? Wonder what you could do about that.

/mini rant over

So, yeah. The battery pack is a nice gift. A gift, and a curse. You have been warned.

I wore Fossil watches for many years, and I think they look great. That said, replacing the battery in a Fossil watch is not so simple. The rear plate has to be removed by a professional-- meaning you have to go to a watch store/jeweler, who will make a face and charge you for the service.

The camera idea is really nice for those who can still be bothered to carry them - the quality difference is huge compared to a smartphone, even smartphones with "good" cameras. Larger sensors, optical zoom, etc. make a big difference, but you can still put these cameras in a pocket or purse.

I've heard great things about the Sony recommended here, but for the those looking for something cheaper than $650, we've been happy with the Canon G9X for about $350-400.

Only downside is you will truly feel like a freak these days if you ask someone else to take a photo of you... and they may not understand what you are handing them.

I wore Fossil watches for many years, and I think they look great. That said, replacing the battery in a Fossil watch is not so simple. The rear plate has to be removed by a professional-- meaning you have to go to a watch store/jeweler, who will make a face and charge you for the service.

Judging from the Amazon listing, it seems as though the back is designed to be taken off using a coin as a driver...is that wrong?

I wore Fossil watches for many years, and I think they look great. That said, replacing the battery in a Fossil watch is not so simple. The rear plate has to be removed by a professional-- meaning you have to go to a watch store/jeweler, who will make a face and charge you for the service.

Judging from the Amazon listing, it seems as though the back is designed to be taken off using a coin as a driver...is that wrong?

According to Fossil, "Swapping in a new coin cell lithium battery can be done easily and in just a few simple steps"

I wore Fossil watches for many years, and I think they look great. That said, replacing the battery in a Fossil watch is not so simple. The rear plate has to be removed by a professional-- meaning you have to go to a watch store/jeweler, who will make a face and charge you for the service.

Judging from the Amazon listing, it seems as though the back is designed to be taken off using a coin as a driver...is that wrong?

According to Fossil, "Swapping in a new coin cell lithium battery can be done easily and in just a few simple steps"

"Oh look, this metal back has a slot that is perfect for me to use this coin cell battery to open".

I wore Fossil watches for many years, and I think they look great. That said, replacing the battery in a Fossil watch is not so simple. The rear plate has to be removed by a professional-- meaning you have to go to a watch store/jeweler, who will make a face and charge you for the service.

Judging from the Amazon listing, it seems as though the back is designed to be taken off using a coin as a driver...is that wrong?

According to Fossil, "Swapping in a new coin cell lithium battery can be done easily and in just a few simple steps"

Well, my mother is going to be 83 this year, and unfortunately, none of the things here are very suitable for someone whose formative years happened during World War Two.

But I'd like to point out something in the gift suggestions that turns out to be a bad choice. The white noise maker suggested is not that great. I know, I tried it.

Being a fairly light sleeper who seems destined to live well within earshot of noisy and busy streets, I've had to use noise-makers (typically fans) most of my adult life in order to get any restful sleep. I had to stop using fans when the quality of the motors dropped to the point that they burn out after a year or less. Lasko seems to be the only brand of fan makers these days, and they're basically shit if you need to sleep with one. I've yet to find a new one that doesn't whines badly from the first day.

With fans a bust, I've tried white-noise options, including the make and brand of the white noise device here. It was too quiet to mask background sounds and eventually whined as well. The fan gets dirty and very easily becomes unbalanced, and cleaning it was a pain. It's simply too small without enough air turbulence to make much masking sound. It uses a 120 MM computer fan, which while they can be "loud" isn't really "loud enough" for the job, even with the adjustment to the air turbulence to increase noise volume.

Eventually, I did find an electronic white-noise maker at the same price in the same place, with variable volume and a rather large assortment of white noise types that was NOT on a recording loop. It's essentially a random white noise generator. It's called the LectroFan High Fidelity White Noise Machine. I'd link it, but I don't want to be posting "spam".

I mean, if we're looking at high-tech things to give Mom, may as well go with something electronic (no moving parts to wear out as with the analog noise maker) at the same price that actually works better.

All that said, I'm severely disappointed in the continuing lack of the best Mother's Day gift of all: One that keeps one's female parental unit from regaling their offspring with the medical woes of completely unrelated people the listener has not seen in decades (if ever).

The INSTANT that device is invented, I'll buy it for Mom. In the meantime, she's sticking to older tech because as it turns out, much of the gadgetry we get today is pretty annoying to deal with on a day to day basis. My mom is one of those folks who would prefer to care for and feed something furry than something electronic.

All that said, I'm severely disappointed in the continuing lack of the best Mother's Day gift of all: One that keeps one's female parental unit from regaling their offspring with the medical woes of completely unrelated people the listener has not seen in decades (if ever).

This unexpectedly struck a chord with me. Talking about these people might be important to her for some reason. As a listener, I would be inclined to keep that in mind when spending time with someone (sometimes as a listener, you have to learn that the conversation isn't always about you (in the general sense, not you specifically). Sometimes you just never know why someone wants to talk about something that seems like it might be trivial.

Eventually, I did find an electronic white-noise maker at the same price in the same place, with variable volume and a rather large assortment of white noise types that was NOT on a recording loop. It's essentially a random white noise generator. It's called the LectroFan High Fidelity White Noise Machine. I'd link it, but I don't want to be posting "spam".

I mean, if we're looking at high-tech things to give Mom, may as well go with something electronic (no moving parts to wear out as with the analog noise maker) at the same price that actually works better.

That's actually really good information to have, thank you. I'd been tempted by the fan-based one in the past, but non-looping, procedurally-generated noise definitely seems like the superior option.

I'd been tempted by the fan-based one in the past, but non-looping, procedurally-generated noise definitely seems like the superior option.

Just as a datapoint, I've had a couple fan-based noisemakers for 3+ years now (half-price knockoffs of the Marpac. They look identical. Got them on Amazon), one in our room, one in our toddler's room, and they've worked great. I've opened them up and used compressed air to spray out the dust bunnies two or three times during that time, along with spraying a little silicone lubricant along the fan shaft, just to keep things running smoothly.

Speaking only for myself, I never found an electronic noisemaker that sounded real enough to me to work as a sleep aid. They don't sound "right." Which I realize nonsense, of course: sound is sound. But it's obviously enough of a personal preference that I'd always suggest someone try both and return whichever one doesn't do it for you. Whether or not you're willing to consider a fan-based one also probably depends on how clean your environment is, and how willing you are to clean it out occasionally so the motor doesn't bind up with junk, like anything mechanical.

Well, my mother is going to be 83 this year, and unfortunately, none of the things here are very suitable for someone whose formative years happened during World War Two.

But I'd like to point out something in the gift suggestions that turns out to be a bad choice. The white noise maker suggested is not that great. I know, I tried it.

Being a fairly light sleeper who seems destined to live well within earshot of noisy and busy streets, I've had to use noise-makers (typically fans) most of my adult life in order to get any restful sleep. I had to stop using fans when the quality of the motors dropped to the point that they burn out after a year or less. Lasko seems to be the only brand of fan makers these days, and they're basically shit if you need to sleep with one. I've yet to find a new one that doesn't whines badly from the first day.

With fans a bust, I've tried white-noise options, including the make and brand of the white noise device here. It was too quiet to mask background sounds and eventually whined as well. The fan gets dirty and very easily becomes unbalanced, and cleaning it was a pain. It's simply too small without enough air turbulence to make much masking sound. It uses a 120 MM computer fan, which while they can be "loud" isn't really "loud enough" for the job, even with the adjustment to the air turbulence to increase noise volume.

Eventually, I did find an electronic white-noise maker at the same price in the same place, with variable volume and a rather large assortment of white noise types that was NOT on a recording loop. It's essentially a random white noise generator. It's called the LectroFan High Fidelity White Noise Machine. I'd link it, but I don't want to be posting "spam".

I mean, if we're looking at high-tech things to give Mom, may as well go with something electronic (no moving parts to wear out as with the analog noise maker) at the same price that actually works better.

All that said, I'm severely disappointed in the continuing lack of the best Mother's Day gift of all: One that keeps one's female parental unit from regaling their offspring with the medical woes of completely unrelated people the listener has not seen in decades (if ever).

The INSTANT that device is invented, I'll buy it for Mom. In the meantime, she's sticking to older tech because as it turns out, much of the gadgetry we get today is pretty annoying to deal with on a day to day basis. My mom is one of those folks who would prefer to care for and feed something furry than something electronic.

If your mother is hard of hearing, get her a smart watch. The vibrations they feel on their wrists to indicate texts and calls will make sure they cannot ignore you when you are trying to get them to respond to you.

The apple watch I got my mother means it takes me 5 minutes to find her phone for her when I am over instead of 1 hour.

I'd been tempted by the fan-based one in the past, but non-looping, procedurally-generated noise definitely seems like the superior option.

Just as a datapoint, I've had a couple fan-based noisemakers for 3+ years now (half-price knockoffs of the Marpac. They look identical. Got them on Amazon), one in our room, one in our toddler's room, and they've worked great. I've opened them up and used compressed air to spray out the dust bunnies two or three times during that time, along with spraying a little silicone lubricant along the fan shaft, just to keep things running smoothly.

Speaking only for myself, I never found an electronic noisemaker that sounded real enough to me to work as a sleep aid. They don't sound "right." Which I realize nonsense, of course: sound is sound. But it's obviously enough of a personal preference that I'd always suggest someone try both and return whichever one doesn't do it for you. Whether or not you're willing to consider a fan-based one also probably depends on how clean your environment is, and how willing you are to clean it out occasionally so the motor doesn't bind up with junk, like anything mechanical.

That's good information as well. I have an overpriced el-cheapo noise generator that I bought on a whim and the big thing for me is the noticeable repeating. If I can get a nice selection of noises of various colors that don't almost sound like they're playing a repeating snippet of melody, that's probably going to be the best option for me, personally.

Well, my mother is going to be 83 this year, and unfortunately, none of the things here are very suitable for someone whose formative years happened during World War Two.

But I'd like to point out something in the gift suggestions that turns out to be a bad choice. The white noise maker suggested is not that great. I know, I tried it.

Being a fairly light sleeper who seems destined to live well within earshot of noisy and busy streets, I've had to use noise-makers (typically fans) most of my adult life in order to get any restful sleep. I had to stop using fans when the quality of the motors dropped to the point that they burn out after a year or less. Lasko seems to be the only brand of fan makers these days, and they're basically shit if you need to sleep with one. I've yet to find a new one that doesn't whines badly from the first day.

With fans a bust, I've tried white-noise options, including the make and brand of the white noise device here. It was too quiet to mask background sounds and eventually whined as well. The fan gets dirty and very easily becomes unbalanced, and cleaning it was a pain. It's simply too small without enough air turbulence to make much masking sound. It uses a 120 MM computer fan, which while they can be "loud" isn't really "loud enough" for the job, even with the adjustment to the air turbulence to increase noise volume.

Eventually, I did find an electronic white-noise maker at the same price in the same place, with variable volume and a rather large assortment of white noise types that was NOT on a recording loop. It's essentially a random white noise generator. It's called the LectroFan High Fidelity White Noise Machine. I'd link it, but I don't want to be posting "spam".

I mean, if we're looking at high-tech things to give Mom, may as well go with something electronic (no moving parts to wear out as with the analog noise maker) at the same price that actually works better.

All that said, I'm severely disappointed in the continuing lack of the best Mother's Day gift of all: One that keeps one's female parental unit from regaling their offspring with the medical woes of completely unrelated people the listener has not seen in decades (if ever).

The INSTANT that device is invented, I'll buy it for Mom. In the meantime, she's sticking to older tech because as it turns out, much of the gadgetry we get today is pretty annoying to deal with on a day to day basis. My mom is one of those folks who would prefer to care for and feed something furry than something electronic.

Pretty much. We use a fan as a noise-maker in our room, but the kids get noise on a loop. It's much easier to pack a little USB-powered speaker that takes a microSD or USB drive than to pack a fan---for trips or whatnot.

I found that Brownian noise is much more palatable than white or pink noise. But you need a speaker that has more bass to it; that has been the trick for us. I can sleep with it when the speaker can drive the lower frequencies. But yes, the looping part sucks. I used Audacity to splice together the clip into a 30-60 minute segment, then have 5 or so on the drive and it's enough to sleep through when the track switches.

The really frustrating thing about Sony across all their camera product lines is that they stuff their models with space-age technology, and then forget to do some very basic things that the competitors have had since the stone ages. In case of RX100M3, Sony in its infinite wisdom left out a touchscreen. Really, Sony, WTF are you thinking!? For this reason alone I cannot recommend it to moms who aren’t into cameras enough to make their own decisions.

Check out the competition with similar image quality like Panasonic LX9 and Canon G7X2 instead. True, they lack the viewfinder that the RX100 series has, but if your mom gets worked up about the need for a viewfinder, she’s probably not in the segment targeted by this article.

Definitely going to have to recommend everyone to buy a Anker’s PowerCore+ 10500 if your a technology buff and loves to keep your devices charged while on the go. I have the 26800 of it and it's retained over 95 percent of its charge when I hadn't used it for 7 months.

One thing about the Marpac Dohm white noise machine - it's entirely mechanical, so it uses 3-18W of power, depending on settings. Let's say in typical use it uses 10W, and it's on for eight hours per night. That's 80Wh per night, or 2.5kWh per month. That's not insignificant.

I really can't tell much difference between the sound from the Marpac machine and that from a good quality digital machine such as the LectroFan. But most digital machines just run off a 5V USB port, and pull only a watt or so. Given that I can't tell the difference, I'll happily put up with synthesized white noise if it uses an order of magnitude less power than that produced by a mechanical machine.

We recently sold Sony RX100 III and upgraded our phones to ones with best possible cameras.The logic is with RX100 you only have it with you when you deliberately take it it on a photo trip and the photo export/editing workflow is a nightmare compared to how seamless iCloud is.

My kids are still young, so I get Mother's Day gifts for my wife. If your Mother's Day target is like my wife though (Forgetful, and incapable of plugging anything in, ever), battery packs are a godsend. I went for the larger 20,000 version, and it sees plenty of use when we travel.

Fair warning though, it will become a regular sight so see her plugged in to the battery pack instead of the wall, even when sitting on the couch ~3ft away from a wall charger... And she will NEVER PLUG THE DAMN BATTERY PACK IN. EVER! Oh, it's dead? Wonder what you could do about that.

/mini rant over

So, yeah. The battery pack is a nice gift. A gift, and a curse. You have been warned.

It's possible you just need longer charging cords to make it easier to lounge about in different positions. 12 foot charging cables are amazing!

Its the single biggest timesaver when cooking & any mom would appreciate not having to stand on their feet for hours cooking.

I mean I love my instant pot, and use it as a pressure cooker 2-3 times a week. But how does it make you not have to stand on your feet for hours when cooking?

I find that the standing/prep time is the same as when using a slow cooker or pot in the oven.

Read up on it & look at the youtube videos & recipes.We make a lot of different kinds of foods...indian, thai, american, etc & this gadget has made a significant dent in the time saved & it keeps the food warm as need.